Current computer systems use graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to allow users to effectively utilize the computer system without having to learn a complex command language. An innovation of the GUI is the ability to allow users to visually organize files, folders and other objects more easily through the use of file manager programs such as Windows® Explorer. As used herein, the term file manager refers to any computer program or aspect of a computer program that is used to organize and display files or representations thereof.
Recent innovations in visual technologies such as the widespread availability of digital cameras have made the graphical capabilities of an operating system more important than ever before. Digital photograph images are often stored on the hard drives of personal computers rather than on film or photographic paper. Many consumers prefer taking photographs with digital cameras because it is not necessary to develop a roll of film in order to view the photographs. Rather, the photographic images need only be downloaded from the camera onto a personal computer hard disk where they are stored in some picture file format (e.g. .jpg, .tif, .gif, and the like) and can be viewed and manipulated through the GUI using various application programs that either come preinstalled on the operating system or are value-added software products (e.g., DIGITAL IMAGE PRO, by Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash.) that a user installs on top of the operating system (hereinafter OS).
As hard disk space becomes less expensive, users are able to store increasing numbers of photographic images (and other types of computer image files) on the hard drive of their computers. Because of the increased number of images, it has become more difficult for users to manage and organize the graphics files that contain the images. For example, in a folder with hundreds of picture files it can be difficult to find a particular image file. This is especially the case where the filename is not indicative of the contents of the picture file.
One way that users attempt to organize their picture files is by renaming them in such as way as to indicate the contents of the image contained in them. This method has certain drawbacks. First, where a user has hundreds or even thousands of photographs, he or she must take the time to rename each and every file to describe the contents of the picture or photograph it contains. This renaming process involves viewing each file to understand its contents and then typing a new name for the file. For hundreds or thousands of pictures, this method is impractical because it could take hours or even days.
A technique that has been employed in the prior art to enable users to more easily navigate, organize and view picture files is the use of a “thumbnail” view, illustrated in FIG. 2. A thumbnail typically refers to a representation of the contents of a file encapsulated in an icon or other image of a size smaller than the original image size that is displayed in a file listing environment. Although the use of thumbnails provides the user with a visual indication of the contents of each file, in a folder that contains many files, it may still be difficult to locate a desired file.
Other techniques have been used to more effectively allow the user to organize, locate and access picture files in a folder. For example, some known file managers allow the user to designate an ordering property that allows them to place the items in a file or folder in some particular sorted order, illustrated in FIG. 3. For example, a user could configure the file manager to sort the files in a folder by date/time so that they are listed in chronological order. The user could also configure the file manager to sort the files in alphabetical order by file name or file type. When the user configures the file manager is this way, the entire content of the folder are ordered in a two-dimensional array based on the selected sorting criterion.
Although these techniques are useful in organizing smaller grouping of files and folders, as the number of files increases, these techniques become less and less effective. Thus, there is a need for an improved way to organize and display files that overcomes these and other limitations found in the prior art.